When your a lower level, say 12 and below, the game seems to have much more of a role playing feel. People communicate and interact with eachother. Which is what kept me playing past the first hour. Hi to the couple of people I spoke to and made me feel welcome.

Is it just me or above level 12 does the game seem to turn into a button bashing exercise with everyone just trying to make the next level?

i can't really speak for the game's community after the latest update. However, as level 40 before the update I can say that were many rooms where people would just interact instead of hunting. Roleplays were pretty frequent as well. Yes, they are more prevalent at lower levels, but it hardly died down at all in the higher levels. However, being a level 40 after the update, I find that most people have been concentrating on hunting. Then again, the update is new and so that is unsurprising. After a little while, people might start interacting more again? Instead of button mashing. It's not as if the above level 40 range is devoided of interactions though, I still talk to people. It's just that there are less rooms full of people solely talking and roleplaying .
I'm going to guess that roleplays should still be abundant from levels 1-39? Again, I can't say for sure, but they were very common in for levels prior to the update where the cap was level 40.

I kind of just roleplay on my own. Like, I say what the character does in my thoughts instead of chatting and stuff. I don't know, I've always liked that better. But even in the hunting grounds and the pvp arena, people still talk. Except, it's about the battle and hunting—but it is fun (try) to climb the tree and the rocks.

I think that lower levels roleplay more, but higher levels talk about stuff more lol
Higher level players also roleplay but not as much. Before the update when level 20s would be put with level 40s, I saw the level 20s roleplaying.
But since the update came out, most higher levels are trying to level up. However, some still enjoy roleplaying and adopting a pup, getting a mate, or having a family.

Usually when you are about to reach max level, you will talk and roleplay less because you want to level up. At least that's what I did when I was on level 39 before the update.
But the hard work payed off! When I reached max level before the update (level 40), I didn't have to worry about leveling up, but just enjoying the game, finding friends in PvP, and leveling up my attributes. But now since they let out an update, I'm hunting in co-op way more and working harder than I used to because the new animals are way stronger than the old ones (especially the white rhino ). What I think is that max level players do talk more because they feel like they don't have much to do in the game anymore.
I'm personally not a roleplayer, though I've tried it once I'm more into hunting alone (unless there's a white rhino or something I can't kill by myself), but I'll occasionally chat with my friends if I see them in PvP and hunt with them in co-op. I'm pretty sure some people like to roleplay and chat more than hunting, but that's their own opinion.